The roughly six inches between your ears contains the most complex structure in the known universe. On a searing-hot summer afternoon, I thought I’d offer up some cool fun facts about your brain.
From a long-gone website called Nursing Assistant Central, I’ve pulled these humourous pieces of trivia from a blog post entitled 199 Fascinating Facts You Never Knew About the Human Brain.
Did you know ...
On average, your brain weighs 3 pounds or 1.3 kilograms.
That’s it. Roughly 2% of your total body weight. Your skin weighs more than your brain.
It reaches its peak when you turn 18, perhaps as late as 25.
As a baby, it grows about 3 times its size in its first year. It starts to decrease by 40, although more so after age of 60.
Your brain is fat!
The fattiest organ in your body, the brain comprises 75% water and 60% fat. Think of it like firm Jello.
However, the fat stuff is critical as …
-
- 40% grey matter comprising neurons – aka a neuron is a nerve cell – which gather and transmit signals. There are 100 billion neurons in your 3-pound brain. That’s about the same number of stars in the Milky Way.
- 60% white matter comprising dendrites, axons and synapses – to be simple, structures which take in, cross over and forward information between the neurons, allowing it to send their signals amongst them. There could be as many as 10,000 synapses.
- Information moves as hyper-quickly at 268 miles per hour (or 431kph), about the speed of a Formula 1 race car.
Your brain can’t do some things.
There are no pain receptors in your brain. In other words, you can’t feel pain in your brain, no matter how stupid your idea is.
You can’t tickle yourself because your brain knows the difference between an unexpected touch and your own touch.
Be positive apparently. You (all of us) experience some 70,000 thoughts every day. 80% of those thoughts are negative, and 60% are the same thoughts you had yesterday. (And we wonder why we aren’t more creative.)
Your brain maximises its space and produces a lot more than just thoughts.
With 100,000 miles of blood vessels, that’s half-way to the moon.
It uses 20% of the total oxygen in your body, and 20% of the blood circulating in your body.
During the day, your brain generates enough energy to power a light bulb – specifically about 10 to 23 watts of power.
A “brain freeze” is actually a warning to stop doing what you’re doing.
Your brain waves works harder while you’re dreaming than when you’re awake.
Everybody dreams, even though you may not remember it. In fact, most people dream about 1-2 hours every night, and have an average of 4-7 dreams each night. Studies have shown that five minutes after a dream, half of it is forgotten. Ten minutes after a dream, more than 90% is forgotten.
Finally, I can’t resist throwing in this fun fact about your brain. Music lessons boost brain organisation and cognitive (thinking) ability.
If you love trivia like me, here are a few other great articles about the human brain.
Fun Facts About the Brain You Didn’t Know, from Healthline
11 Fun Facts About Your Brain, from Northwestern Medicine, part of Northwestern University Healthcare.
Mind-Blowing Facts about the Human Brain, a great video from Sideprojects.
Have any other fun facts about your brain? Please add your comments below. Have a great weekend and stay cool!
1 Comment
Bravo on including benefits of music in brain function. As fellow musicians, I know we couldn’t agree more strongly on that one.